


Monsters in Your Closet

by Jomacblack



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Supernatural
Genre: Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-06-03 12:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19464364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jomacblack/pseuds/Jomacblack
Summary: When Castiel goes on a hunt alone and is caught by a particular FBI team, the brothers do something they never thought they’d have to. They kidnap SSA Spencer Reid to make an exchange. But being kidnapped by delusional serial killers is nothing like Spencer thought it would be.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! 
> 
> I know no one asked for this but I had an idea I wanted to write down and it became a full fanfic. 
> 
> This fic is a crossover between Supernatural x Criminal Minds
> 
> Can be read without watching Criminal Minds but it's better if you do.

Rarely did they caught the suspect _that_ hands-on. Covered in blood as they entered the scene, the man was sliding a blade out of a body that dropped on the floor not a second ago. He stood up and sighed, looking around he seemed kind of irritated by the action he’s committed.

Emily who’s been watching from a distance as she quietly approached didn’t take another second to think before drawing her gun and shouting to the man to get on his knees. Walking from behind the corner she took a peek at all the bodies she hasn’t seen yet that were spread all over the place.

Luke was right behind her also pointing his gun at who was much more than just a suspect now. His eyes focused on the man, anger and disgust forming in them as he processed the scene – bodies of men and woman alike now all lying lifeless on the ground.

“Drop the weapon!” Emily shouted at the man who looked at them visibly surprised, he turned his head to the window in what she thought was going to be a desperate attempt at escaping - they were just on a second floor after all and she’d seen much bolder attempts in her career. But just when she was about to react he turned back with defeat on his face, tossing the blade before them and getting on his knees.

“Hands behind your head.” she ordered to which the man complied. After cuffing him she looked once again at the whole place – it was a mess, many of the massacred bodies had their eyes open and expressions filled with pain. The old barn’s wooden floors were sinking in all the blood that’s been spilled tonight. 

…

“We’ll transport him to Virginia for further questioning.” Emily nodded to her teammates. They were trying to interrogate the man for two days straight before deciding it’s pointless.  
James Novak, as Garcia has established, wasn’t much of a talker. On rare occasion he did open his mouth he only murmured something about ‘’how little you humans comprehend’’.  
Rossi was also pretty sure he heard the word ‘’demons’’ come out of the mans’ mouth.

That along with the examination of the weird symbols left all around the crime scene led the team to one conclusion – they caught _him -_ maybe that wasn’t their goal when they came to investigate corpses of people who were murdered in brutal and imaginative way, but it was a start.

A start to catching _the Winchester brothers._

They theorized about them having an acquaintance, a third party – someone that got twisted into their mess – for quite a while now. Unfortunately they knew that him being in town doesn’t necessarily mean the Winchesters are. Even if they did come together the brothers would be far away by now – hence the decision to get back to Virginia to try and come up with what to do next.

When they flew in it was already dark. They placed the offender in one of their holding cells and Emily ordered everyone to go home and get some rest before continuing the interrogation tomorrow. It was going to be a tiresome day trying to get some information out of the man who wasn’t so keen on talking. They haven’t confronted him yet about being Winchesters’ accomplice and everyone wanted to know how that would go.

“Briefing tomorrow at 8, then we continue the interrogation, if we can’t come up with any new leads we’ll be assigned a new case.” Which was true, Emily knew that if the case wasn’t moving forward the suspect would be moved to be convicted and sent to jail. That wasn’t even a debate, with being caught red handed, literally covered in blood of your victims, there was not a judge who wouldn’t sentence him to a long, long prison term. But that wasn’t what the team wanted, well, not exactly. The Winchesters were their big goal, catching them was what this was all about.

They said their goodbyes at the elevator and everyone went their separate ways. After not being home for two weeks they all wanted to go home to their loved ones or just go to bed. Everyone except Reid, who couldn’t be happier that they were continuing their case at their hometown. He was very intrigued by the whole thing and had several books regarding the topic of demonic possession, symbols associated with them and what was quite relevant to the case right now – symbols that were thought to be of a protective nature against demons – he was sure they were the same ones they saw at the crime scene. He knew he wouldn’t go to sleep tonight like Emily told him to. He had to read everything he could find regarding the topic. At least he would be prepared for tomorrow’s questioning.

He was walking through the parking lot as a shortcut to his apartment – his head wrapped around the case so much he didn’t notice the man walking behind him. Before he knew he was grabbed in a choking hold that was getting tighter by the second. He started hitting his attacker’s hand that was wrapped around his throat. Gasping for air he reached for his weapon but before he could manage to pull it out the image before his eyes started to get blurry. Not being able to take his gun out of its holster his hand got back to trying to loosen the man’s grip. He was choking but still tried to stay awake. His struggles were for nothing when black dots started appearing before his eyes and he passed out.

“Sammy!” Dean yelled out in a shushed voice. Sam ran in to assist, together they carried unconscious Spencer to the impala. Dean took Reid’s phone and dumped it. They put him in the back seat and covered him with a blanket so it would look like he’s just sleeping. They got into the car and drove off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, I'd really appreciate any comments as it's my first ever fic!
> 
> The whole thing is written down already so no need to worry :) I'll be posting new chapters every week or every few days, we'll see. 
> 
> Hope You like it!


	2. Chapter 2

In the morning the team was gathering to discuss how they should proceed with the case. Garcia hands out the files she gathered on James Novak, as well as Sam and Dean Winchester. When JJ walks in everyone is already there, everyone except Reid.

“JJ, have a seat, has anybody seen Reid?” Emily asks lifting her head from the file she was reading. Everyone looks at each other but no one says a word.

“It’s not like him to be late.” Rossi speaks up. Reid’s always early, it’s to be expected to see him going through the files or some book in the conference room before anyone else is in, maybe except Garcia but that’s because she has to prep the files for the team.

“Let’s not wait up, he’ll probably join us in a minute, maybe he fell asleep reading again.” despite what Emily has told him, she could see he was invested in the case yesterday so much she knew he would research the topic when he got home and not get rest like she told him to. She smiled to herself thinking about their genius drooling over the books he fell asleep on top of.

“Okay, so…” Garcia started on the subject “…James Novak, born July 1973, had a family of two, a wife and a daughter. He was reported missing in 2009 by his wife, Amelia. His missing case is yet to be resolved, there is also no trace of his wife who’s been missing since 2013 and never found. Their daughter, Claire, has been going through foster homes up until she was 18, as of now she’s alive but her location is unknown.”

“And the Winchesters?” prompted Luke.

“Sam and Dean Winchester” Penelope pulled out their mug shots from when they were arrested. “Brothers, Dean is four years older than Sam. Their father served in the army, and the mother died when they were little. In their early life they moved a lot, jumped all around the states. Changed schools all the time, never stayed anywhere for longer than 6 months.”

“Talk about an unstable childhood,” Rossi interjected.

“Mhm. Together they have several charges of grave desecration, robbery, credit card frauds and that’s just the light stuff.” She pulled out photos of crime scenes that were tied to the Winchesters throughout the years. “As you can see…” Garcia grimaced looking away from the screen. So many years on the job and she still couldn’t bare to look at the bodies of the victims. “They get their hands dirty a lot. Dean was tied to several homicides in Louisiana, tortured and killed young woman. Sam was said to be with him during the crimes but it was never confirmed. Dean faked his death at the time and everyone thought it was over.” Penelope took a breath and continued. “Moving on: they were apprehended twice by an FBI agent Victor Henriksen, who died at their hands during their second escape. Since then they’ve just enlarged their body count, killing their victims in a ritualistic and sadistic way they are yet to be stopped.”

“Okay, so…” JJ took over, “…they were classified as a dominant and a submissive a few years back but that theory doesn’t seem to be quite right, except age difference there is nothing that would point towards Dean being the dominant. Sam is also documented to have gone on his own killing spree when Dean wasn’t around, so it just confirms our theory about them both being dominant personalities who work in a duet.”

“They’re sadistic and delusional, living in a world of delusions that was most likely presented to them by their father who had received similar charges. They kill people who they think are either monsters or possessed by demons,” continued Emily. “Today we’re bringing in their supposed accomplice, we don’t know how the relationship started - either it was willingly or happened through a kidnapping and torture, what we might have on our hands is a brainwashed man who could have not signed up for this whole thing so we’ll have to stomp carefully. That is not to say he’s innocent, we’ve all seen what he’s done and the Winchesters weren’t seen anywhere near so really we don’t know the circumstances we’re in.” She finished and checked her clock, Reid was on her mind again, it really wasn’t like him to be this late.

“Dave and Luke, you’ll be the first to interrogate him, I’ll call Reid to see when he’ll be joining us, we could use his knowledge.” Emily ordered and just when they wanted to get up and get to work the screen behind Garcia exchanged the image of their suspects to show one of their friends.

“What’s this?” Asked Luke when he saw the image, not yet realizing it was their teammate.

“Wha..” Garcia turned to the screen only to see Reid chained to a chair “….Reid!” she yelled out dropping the files she was just collecting. Emily looked up from where she was dialling Reid’s number and looked to the screen with the rest of her team.

“Where is this coming from?!” asked JJ, her eyes glued to the screen that was showcasing their teammate unconscious, gagged and chained in a darkly lit room.

“I..I don’t know…” Replied Garcia, forcing herself to sit down to her computer and start punching something in on the keyboard.

“Can you track it?” Asked Emily distressed.

“I’m trying..”

The phone rang, at the moment no one thought of picking it up, they just stood there staring at the screen. It rang a couple of times before something in Emily’s gut told her to get it, she squinted her eyes and walked towards it. She answered and put it on speaker.

“Well, finally.” Said the voice on the other side. Suddenly everyone’s attention was on the phone, no one recognized who was speaking.

“We started to think you wouldn’t pick up,” said the man, mockery audible in his voice “but you care about your friend more than that, don’t you?” No one answered, they all just looked around each other terrified.

Then someone appeared in the frame of the video that was presented to them – they all realized who it was and their fear for their friend’s safety only grew. The man with the phone entered the frame and crouched beside Reid.

“Winchester.” Luke was full of anger, but that was just camouflage for his worry.

“Guessed it!” Dean chuckled. “Sooner or later you would find out, so what’s the point in hiding?” He got up and reached towards Reid. Everyone’s breath got stuck in their lungs for a moment. “wakey wakey.” He patted Reid’s face a few times trying to get him to wake up. Spencer tilted his head the other way starting to come to his senses.

“I think you know what this is about.” he looked straight into the camera.

“No.” the only words Emily could squeeze out of her pinched throat. The murderer they just caught coming to her mind.

“No?” repeated the man raising his eyebrows. “Okay, well, let’s see about that,” he said reaching behind and pulling out a knife he swiftly placed it by Reid’s throat, he patted him a few more times until Spencer regained consciousness. He blinked a few times before getting a hold of his surroundings, panic occurred in his eyes as he understood the situation he was in, he struggled against his restrains but it was for nothing. Dean, unmoved, was still looking straight into the camera, the knife in his hand only got closer to Reid’s throat which forced him to stop moving around. “Maybe this will change your mind - release Castiel and the kid lives.” From the tone of his voice Emily could tell he wouldn’t hesitate. But she wasn’t going to give in so easily.

“Kill him and your friend will never see the light of day.” she threatened, experience with such situations has taught her to stay calm, even if a close one’s life was on the line.

“You’re right. I’m not going to kill him.” Dean looked over Reid’s face, he was terrified and he was right to be. Winchester loosened his grip on Spencer’s neck only to place the blade by his arm. “Not immediately. But I’ll let you watch as I’m cutting him to pieces. I wonder who’ll break first.”

Emily clenched her jaw and thought about it, she couldn’t leave Reid at the hands of these sociopaths, of course she couldn’t just let a criminal go either. She needed to buy time.

“Okay,” she said. “we need to consult this with our boss, it’s not up to us to let him go.” Which was true for the most part.

“Fine. You have until tomorrow.” Dean said before hanging up, a moment later the video also disconnected and the screen showed back the files.

Everyone was terrified, they still haven’t wrapped their minds around what was going on.

Emily blinked and tried to get a hold of herself, she had to play this out well enough so Reid doesn’t get hurt and they get the chance to catch the Winchesters. "Alright… we need to get to work, James Novak is our best shot right now at saving Reid," she told the others.

“He called him Castiel” said Rossi slowly getting back to himself.

“Renaming? Could be a brainwashing tactic,” JJ spoke up.

“Maybe, we’ll have to see for ourselves,” Emily responded, the shock passed and now there was nothing left in her but determination to get their friend back. “Luke, you’re with me, we see what we can get from our guest. JJ and Rossi, stay with Garcia and pull everything you can on Winchesters, where they were seen the last time, behavioural patterns, maybe you’ll be able to pull something out of traffic cameras…”

“Got it!” Garcia, who this whole time she was sitting on her laptop, yelled out. “I searched yesterday’s recordings at the hours we came back to town and crossed them with the route Reid usually takes to get home.”

Everyone was incited and came closer to the screen, soon it showed Reid walking across the parking lot. A man appeared in the frame, a man they could now easily identify as Dean Winchester, he grabbed their friend from behind and started choking him. The team could see Reid struggling to get free but he was clearly overpowered. When Reid lost consciousness another man – Sam Winchester most probably - appeared and together they carried him out of the frame.

“Send the address to our pagers, Rossi and JJ, go there and see if you can find anything,” ordered Emily with a clenched jaw, she was pissed and everyone could see it. Luke thought to himself how he does not envy those who come in her path right now.

…

“How do you want to approach this?” Luke asked looking at Emily who had her eyes burning a hole in the man on the other side of the one-way mirror.

“We don’t have time to play games. We need information on where we can find Reid and we need it fast.” That was all she said before marching into the interrogation room.

“James Novak,” She announced to which there was no reaction. “or should I call you Castiel?” She was pleased to see that that definitely got the man’s attention. But to her discontent all she got was squinted eyes and not a word.

“We know you’re an associate of the Winchester brothers who have numerous murder charges, something you’re not shy of yourself,” she said sitting down in one of the chairs and was soon joined by Luke who did the same.

Still no reaction got Emily enraged, in spite of that she remained calm.

“Now, either you can talk to us or we’ll have to reach out to someone else. We might not know your wife’s whereabouts, which is suspicious enough on its own, but we can always contact Claire, can’t we?”

Luke knew she was bluffing, Garcia couldn’t pin down the daughter’s location which meant she must be hiding, that, or the other thing. Nonetheless he put on his poker face and played along.

“You won’t.” Simply came out of the man’s mouth.

“Oh, but we will. And who knows, maybe she helped daddy commit some of those awful crimes, she’s no angel is she? I’m sure we’ll find a judge who’ll think like us, she’ll be lucky if she only gets charged as an accessory to murder.”

Castiel stood up smacking the table as much as the handcuffs allowed him to. He couldn’t allow anything to happen to Claire, he felt responsible for her.

“Sit down,” ordered Luke also standing up and levelling the man. Castiel looked at him and complied, without his angel powers he couldn’t do much of anything, he hoped Sam and Dean would come to his rescue, and for the time being he needed to handle the situation. What did Dean tell him to do if he gets caught? If he only remembered, at the time he was too ignorant, he had his powers so why would he need to know how to act without them? He cursed himself out for not listening and sat down with his arms crossed.

“So, let’s begin…”


	3. Chapter 3

Reid quickly assessed the situation, from what he heard one of his kidnappers say, it was all about who he and his team apprehended less than three days ago. He was terrified at the thought of being at the mercy of the infamous Winchesters.

Sam gave Dean a thumb up from behind the camera to signalize the end of transmission. Dean withdrew his knife away from Reid and put it behind his belt.

“All good.” announced Sam.

“You sure they can’t track us?”

Sam didn’t answer, just gave Dean a look to which the older brother put his hands up in a defence motion “Just asking…”

“Alright, let’s deal with this then.” Dean turned towards Reid to which Spencer jerked in his seat, being a hostage didn’t mean they wouldn’t hurt him, _just for fun_.

Winchester reached behind his belt and Reid thought he was going for his knife. He jerked again and mumbled through his gag, not able to say a word.

To his surprise Dean pulled out a bunch of keys and went for his wrists to set them free, after he undid both locks Spencer still didn’t move a muscle, too afraid to do so. Dean looked in his face and slowly reached towards it to undo the gag.

“Don’t worry kid, not gonna hurt you.” His voice was unbelievably soft compared to how it was when he talked to Reid’s team. A slight smile crossed the man’s face. Reid squinted his eyes not understanding the situation. Dean backed out and together his kidnappers left the room leaving him alone.

**…**

“You see that?” Rossi inquired pointing to the camera that recorded Reid’s kidnapping. “There are only a few cameras around here, if they waited just a minute they wouldn’t get caught on it.”

“You think they did it on purpose?”

“They’re experienced at what they do, it’s unlikely they made a mistake like that.”

“They wanted us to see.” JJ stated and clenched her jaw, the anger she felt equalled with her worry for Spence.

“They carried him that way.” Rossi went towards the dumpsters “If I’m right…” He bent down and reached under. “Got it.”

He stood up and showed JJ what he found.

“Reid’s phone”

“Experienced.” He nodded his head and sighted, with opponents like Winchesters it’s not going to be easy to get their teammate back.

…

“You think they’re gonna let Cas go?” Sam asked, this whole situation was over their heads, kidnapping an FBI agent was not something they ever thought they’d do.

“I don’t know, but hey, they probably think we’re psychopaths, so they won’t just leave the kid at our mercy, yeah?” Dean kept cool through the whole thing but he was just as uncomfortable in the situation.

“Probably right. I’ll go make him some food, it’s almost noon, he must be starving.”

…

Through the hours of talking to James, or rather Castiel as he himself said he wants to be called, there wasn’t much the team found out. They could tell the man was not threatened into the situation he was in, he seemed to be actually fond of the Winchesters, the brainwashed part was a different story though. He seemed to share the same delusions about the world as the brothers did. Actually he tried defending their name telling how brave they are and how many people they’ve saved over the years.

“So…monsters and demons, and how do you fit into all this?” Luke inquired, he knew understanding a delusional mind required getting into the delusions themselves. “You said Sam and Dean are hunters, humans who hunt monsters.”

“Yes. They’re very much human. I’m actually…” he trailed off, not having his powers he was ashamed of telling what he was and what he lost. Even more so that the humans in front of him would most probably think he’s just ill minded and making this up.

“Yes..?” Luke was patient, he raised his eyebrows and reconnected their eye contact to show he was interested.

“I’m an angel of the Lord.”

Emily and Luke looked at each other, Alvez took a breath and continued the conversation.

“If you’re an angel, why don’t you just…”

“Fly out of here?” This time Castiel raised _his_ eyebrows, he was not amused by the whole situation and having to explain himself. “I can’t, if I could we wouldn’t be in this situation. My grace was taken from me and with it my powers.”

“Ah, of course.” Luke wanted to seem sympathetic but even he was reaching his limits. Cas squinted his eyes at the man but didn’t say anything.

A knock on the door broke the awkward silence, JJ poke her head in and asked for Prentiss, who quickly got up and left. She was probably happy she could do so, Luke thought to himself. What was left to him was to get deeper into the man’s story.

“Strauss wants to talk to you,” said JJ when they closed the interrogation room door.

Emily nodded her head, she knew what this was about, Strauss was the one that could decide to let the suspect go in exchange for Reid’s life. Nobody wanted that, but if they couldn’t find the Winchesters quick enough they’d have to resort to doing so.

Their boss was not happy, how could she be, yesterday she thought they’ll catch the Winchesters, which would look great on her, and today one of her agents is kidnapped.

“Did you pull any information out of him?” she got straight to the point when they met in the hallway, there was no time to waste.

“Nothing that is useful for us right now.”

“Then push him harder!”

“We can’t, if we do he could catch us on the lie that we know where his daughter is. That is all leverage we have right now,” said Emily, she knew sooner or later the lie would come out, but for now they at least were learning something about the Winchesters or who they think they and their friend in custody are.

“We haven’t had any luck locating them either, the phone they used seems to be of military grade and the video points to be made in Siberia, from what Garcia could gather. They know what they’re doing.”

“Fine, keep me informed on everything, letting that sociopath go is the last thing I want to do.” She spun around and started walking away.

“So do we, ma’am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to post twice a week as the chapters are quite short, so you can expect new chapter on Wednesday!


	4. Chapter 4

Spencer sat in a corner of the room, watching his surroundings. There wasn’t much in here, only a chair stood in the middle drilled to the floor. A giant pentagram was all around it and was stretched to the corners of the room. Their own torture room – Reid thought to himself, it didn’t comfort him to be put in it, where he imagined all the people suffering through Winchester’s ‘’interrogations’’ as he remembered they called it in one of the files.

The door started to clatter, someone was coming. Reid tensed up and put his spine straight to the wall, what could they want from him? It couldn’t already be morning. It was hard to keep track of time in here but he was sure only a few hours could have passed.

Sam Winchester appeared at the door, a plate in his hand. Until this moment Reid hadn’t realized how hungry he was, stress of being held against your will would do that.

“I brought you some food,” The man said with a slight smile, it seemed he was trying to be as little threatening as possible. He put a plate and a glass full of water right by Reid’s feet and crouched for a moment.

“It’s probably hard to believe right now, but we mean you no harm.”

Spencer doesn’t say a word, just watches the man cautiously.

“Here, eat, you must be hungry?” Sam prompted with an encouraging smile, moving the plate closer to Reid.

Slowly he reached out his hand to get it. If the Winchesters are playing nice for the moment, it’s best not to enrage them by declining. Also he _was_ very hungry.

Sam smiled and nodded, then got up to leave. Shortly Reid was left alone once again.

If that’s how it is being held captive by two of America’s most wanted sociopaths, maybe it wasn’t going to be so bad – Reid thought to himself for a moment, but then shook the thought off – it was only as long as he’s useful and his team was complying, he’s safe. God knows what they’ll do to him if their demands won’t be met. Not wanting to think about that Spencer focused on what he heard the older brother say: “You have until tomorrow.” That must have meant his team was playing on time to locate them, so as long as the Winchesters weren’t cutting him to pieces, which he also heard Dean say, he needed to play on time too.

…

“I can’t find anything!” Garcia shouted in irritation, she wasn’t used to not getting results but the Winchesters were _good_. They erased every trace she could’ve used to locate them. The phone they used was impossible to track and the origin of the video transmission seemed to have a different place of origin every time she tried to pin it down.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it.” reassured JJ but her voice wasn’t so confident and they both knew it.

“No. I’ve tried everything. They wiped it, there is just nothing to track.” Penelope retorted, she has been doing this for hours with the same result every time.

They both got silent, JJ knew that if Garcia couldn’t track something, it was just simply untraceable.

“Then he’s our only hope.” Not a word more came out of JJ’s mouth before she stormed out of the room.

“Do you have anything?” Asked Emily hopefully when JJ approached her. A look of resignation was enough of an answer. They both looked through the glass and into the interrogation room where Rossi was trying his best. Despite his efforts it was visible he was losing it. It was hard for anyone to stay calm listening to stories of a delusional mind while their friend’s life was on the line.

It was late afternoon now and they were in the same spot as when they first received the call from the brothers.

“Can I try?” JJ asked not turning her gaze away from Castiel.

“Sure, but it’s time I talk about hostile release with Strauss.” Jennifer looked at Emily surprised, surely they couldn’t give in so quickly.

“I know it’s rushed but we can’t risk it, not with the Winchesters.” JJ nodded her head reluctantly, she imagined all the awful things the brothers were capable of. After all she spent the last few hours looking through their files and all the ways they used to murder people.

…

Reid could tell a few hours have passed, it was probably getting dark out by now. What also pointed him towards that assumption was the fact that it was getting colder by the second, he must have been put in some kind of a cellar. He wished he had worn warmer clothes that day, but how could he have known? He was shaking slightly curled up in the same corner he sat in when he was released from _that chair,_ he thought to himself looking begrudgingly at it, chains hanging ominously.

Analysing the whole thing didn’t make him any calmer, he imagined the Winchesters as cruel, seeing demons where there were people, violent monsters who would torture him just for the sake of it. Maybe pushing salt down his throat like he knew they liked to do to people. 

He and his team just seized their accomplice on an act of mass murder, something the brothers, amongst torture and grave desecration, liked to do themselves. Bringing him a PB&J sandwich, smiling and reassuring they wouldn’t harm him _was not_ something he thought they’d be capable of.

Before he could go deeper into the subject the doors clattered and the brothers appeared. This wasn’t meal time, they wouldn’t come together if it was. Reid shivered, from the cold or the fear, he didn’t know.

“Come with us,” Sam spoke up but Reid was too afraid to get up, his legs weak.

“We won’t hurt you, _promise.”_ The man said seeing Reid’s fear. Somehow it made Spencer calmer, how could he trust the man so easily? He didn’t think about it any longer before getting up. Maybe they really won’t hurt him, and if they wanted to why would they even bother with reassurance? One way or another, he decided it’s best to comply and not make them angry.

Sam smiled warmly and gestured his hand for Reid to come closer which he did. Uncertain steps lead him out of the room. Dean’s eyes weren’t so kind, he looked at Reid suspiciously with his arms crossed, standing tall. He averted his gaze and saw the room he was just in being closed and hidden behind bookshelves. If he was still there and his team came to rescue him they probably wouldn’t even find him in there, the perfect torture room indeed.

“Let’s go.” Sam raised his hand to show the way. Dean reluctantly turned around and walked in the direction pointed by his brother. Reid looked over his shoulder to see Sam with the same warm reassuring smile he was kind of getting used to. With some more confidence he started to walk behind Dean.

They exited what looked like a storage unit and walked into a hallway. After passing a few doors which as Reid noticed had the same weird symbol on them, they stopped at one of them. Dean opened the room and motioned for Reid to get in, Spencer took one last glance at the man and walked in. He didn’t expect what was inside. He didn’t think about where the Winchesters are taking him and he surely didn’t think about that.

It was a small but cosy room with a single bed in the middle and a door on it’s right side. On each side of the bed there were bedside cabinets with lamps standing on them. He could also feel a difference in temperature, it was nicely warm in here.

“Here, for if you get cold at night.” Sam handed him a blanket, the situation had Reid a little amazed. He couldn’t believe what was actually happening. “We’ll bring you dinner in a second, there is a bathroom if you want to use it.” The man pointed to the door Reid noticed earlier.

The brothers left, he heard a lock closing but it didn’t phase him as he was so surprised at what just happened. He unfolded the blanket he was given and wrapped himself with it sitting down on the bed that already had its own bedding with a thick quilt all on its own.

The whole situation had him taken aback, this couldn’t be really happening, could it? A few hours ago all he hoped for was to not get violently murdered. Now he’s warming up wrapped in blanket in his own room while the Winchesters are making him dinner.

He couldn’t wait to tell his team about that. His friends that are probably scared for his life right now – he thought to himself and suddenly felt a lot less happy about the whole thing. He wished he could somehow tell them that he’s alright, but that would never happen, all in all he was still a hostage.

He shook his head and started thinking about all the cases he’s seen with people who defended their kidnappers, telling stories about how great they were just because they didn’t hurt them in some terrible way. He could never quite understand how people got like that.

Yet here he was, amazed that he got a blanket and some food. What if he ends up as one of those people? A shiver ran down his spine and he quickly dropped the blanket, terrified at the thought. When he heard the door unlocking he ran to the bathroom, he didn’t want to face Sam with his annoyingly nice smile and kind words.

Instead he heard someone else.

“Eh, kid? Sam made you some food.” Dean spoke up to him. Reid was leaning against the bathroom door which to his despair had no lock. Of course it doesn’t, they’re the ones that lock _you –_ he scolded himself and pushed his back harder against the wood.

“Alright... I’ll just leave it, you come out when you want to.” Reid heard Dean walk out of the room and lock the door. He waited a second before coming out, cautiously looking around as if there was someone in the room beside himself. All he noticed was a tray with some hot beverage visibly steaming and a pile of toasts.

…

“And?” Sam inquired when Dean got back to the kitchen, sat down and started eating his own toast.

“And what?” Dean munched on his toast and didn’t look at his brother. “The kid hid in the bathroom and didn’t say a word. Did he ever spoke to you?” he raised his eyebrows putting down the toast.

“We kidnapped him, he’s terrified.”

“No then.” Dean turned back to his meal.

“I bet he’s gonna love your toast,” Sam said with a chuckle.

“You shut up, for all he knows you made him those.” Dean pointed his finger threateningly at his brother.

“You told him that?” Sam laughed. “If that’s the case then you’re making every meal for him now.”

When his brother looked at him with a raised eyebrow he couldn’t help himself and laughed even harder. “He’s a profiler, Dean. He’ll know you were lying.”


	5. Chapter 5

“What do you mean ‘it’s not an option’?” Emily couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“We can’t release him, it’s not my decision.” Strauss was over her head in the situation and everyone knew it, for years all she did was paperwork and staying at the office. Despite that when she delivered the news to the team a new wave of bitterness was directed at her. “Superiors of _all of us_ decided against it. They said it’s promoting acts of terrorism and the government can’t allow that. By realising this man we would only encourage such behaviour in the future.”

Everyone was out of words. They already estimated a few hours ago that there is no other way, tracking was completely out of bounds and talks with Castiel didn’t bring any results. They thought he would be their way in on the Winchesters but his previous silence turned into an endless babble about heaven and hell, and if they were honest they preferred it the other way around.

“I’m sorry, if it was up to me…”

“They’ll tear him to shreds,” Garcia said with tears gathering in her eyes, Strauss wanted to say something but soon closed her mouth. Luke put his hand on top of Garcia’s in an attempt to comfort her.

“I’m hoping you can figure something out so it doesn’t come to that.” Strauss walked out of the bullpen without looking at anyone.

Everyone was astounded.

They couldn’t argue with the logic of that decision which only made everything worse. If they let Castiel, a psychotic murderer, on the loose it would soon leak out to the media and people like Winchesters would be incited to try the same method to get what they want.

…

Reid relaxed after the hot meal he was given. It was really good and warmed him up just enough to forget the sordid view of the dungeon he was in a couple of hours ago. He was getting sleepy – Winchesters probably went to bed a long time ago . At first he didn’t want to sleep so he took advantage of the books that were left on a shelf by his bed, read all three, cursing his ability to go through them as if they were just a few pages. They were pretty generic, a love story with a plot twist, an adventure and one that actually caught Reid’s eye – about a woman who could communicate with angels – she was blinded when she didn’t listen to one of the angels’ warnings and pushed it to see it’s form. According to the book humans couldn’t handle seeing angel’s true form, or hearing their voice like the woman did, at least not without being chosen. The hero died in the end but she went to heaven where she was surrounded by the creatures she adored and worshipped all her life.

Now when he didn’t have anything else to do sleep wasn’t much of a choice. With a warm and cosy bed and his stomach filled his eyes closed soundly, as if he wasn’t at all fearing for his life, maybe at the moment he was just too tired to be.

…

In the morning Reid woke up before he heard anything outside his room that could point to the brothers being awake. With a clearer mind, although still a bit tired from sleeping maybe three or four hours, he looked around the room. He noticed the same symbol that was placed on the door was also carved in the bedframe. He traced it with his fingers and frowned trying to figure out what it could stand for. It seemed to be a prominent theme here, outside the symbols in the basement that he knew for sure were meant to work against the forces of evil, he didn’t know much else. He was going to research the topic the night he was kidnapped after all.

Soon noises started coming from the hall. Reid heard footsteps coming in the direction of his door so he stood up and prepared himself best he could for the interaction.

Knocking on the door threw him off slightly before Sam’s head popped in to look and soon meet Reid’s eyes.

“Hey, we’re making breakfast and then we’ll call your team…” the man’s eyes took off of Reid to see two books on his bedside table and one thrown on the bed. Reid was uncertain for a moment if it would get him angry but soon his concerns disappeared when Sam looked at him like an idea appeared in his mind, his typical warm expression lightning up his slight smile.

“Maybe you’d like to join?” The younger brother motioned his head in the door’s direction.

“Uh…” Reid had no idea what to say. Should he go? It could be nice, but he could also somehow enrage the Brothers by saying or doing the wrong thing.

“Breakfast will be in a minute and I could give you a book to read if you’d like.” Sam encouragement got Reid’s inclination and he decided to go.

“Sure.” he agreed in a such small uncertain voice it got him a bit embarrassed.

He followed Sam out of the room and into the hall, they passed a few doors and Reid wondered how big this place exactly is. They got to the kitchen where it was smelling amazing already.

“Hey, do you think the kid wants chocolate…” Dean was interrupted by the sight he clearly didn’t expect, his intense stare made Reid want to curl in on himself. It wasn’t necessarily angry or cold, but from it Reid could tell the man didn’t like surprises.

“What’s he doing here?” Dean pointed at Reid with a spatula, which made Spencer laugh a bit on the inside. The image of who was profiled as psychotic killer just didn’t seem to stick when he was standing in the middle of the kitchen, with an apron on, a spatula in his hand, making pancakes.

“I got him out of his room, I thought he could use… some fresh air.”

“Fresh air?” Dean raised his eyebrows.

“…yeah.” Sam nodded his head knowing the absurdity of his argument. “And a book. Speaking of…” Sam didn’t wait a second before going off and leaving Dean and Reid alone.

Dean just looked after his brother walking out and then pointed his gaze towards Reid.

“Sit then, I guess,” he said, again pointing with a spatula this time at the table and then returning to cooking.

Reid hesitated just for a second before coming to sit at the table.

There was an awkward silence where the only sound in the kitchen was a pancake frying in the pan and Dean flipping them from time to time.

“Uh, hey kid, you want chocolate chips with your pancakes?” Dean spoke up turning slightly from the meal he was making.

“Um, yeah, sure” the question caught Reid off guard, the situation he found himself in was abstract. Just before Dean could turn back Spencer noticed a smile cross the man’s face.

Sam was back in what felt like eternity. He carried two books in his hand and sat down opposite of Reid, sliding them across the table for Reid to look at.

“I didn’t know what you’d like so I brought two.” A nervous laughter got out of Sam’s mouth. “We don’t exactly have the most…mainstream ones but those seem alright.”

Reid wondered what meaning ‘alright’ carried about those books, normal? Not about demons? Guess he’d find out.

“You realize he’s leaving soon?” Dean said coming to the table with a pile of pancakes. He set a plate in front of Reid and Sam and then went back to the counter to get his own. He had the biggest pile with chocolate chips just like Reid’s. Spencer smiled on the inside.

“You realize you don’t have to eat two days’ worth all at once?” Sam said starkly to which Dean just gave him _a look_. Reid looked at them and wanted to laugh. _Brothers._

“Anyway, like I tried to tell you when I did our research, he’s a genius. He can read both of those before you finish this pile of…” before he could finish he got a warning look from his brother already munching on his food. Sam chuckled.

“Could you?” Dean asked turning to Reid.

“Uh..” Reid was intimidated by what was said about him. “I mean, maybe not before you finish…” he pointed awkwardly to Dean’s plate. “But yeah, I can read 20,000 words per minute.”

Sam moved his eyebrows in a ‘’ _told you so’’_ manner to which Dean rolled his eyes.

They all ate in pretty much silence only interrupted by brothers’ casual teasing that made Reid laugh. He tried to keep it to himself but when Sam glanced at him with what looked like happiness coming from the fact that Reid finally relaxed a bit he realized he wasn’t very good at hiding his laughs.

“Alright, it’s time.” Dean declared after everyone finished eating. Reid looked at him uncertain, surely the kid must be scared of what comes next, Dean thought. He and Sam threatened to cut him to pieces after all. He hoped the FBI team will meet their demands so they can all be done with this already. He took his phone out of the pocket of his jeans and dialled the number.

“Kid, we’ll let you listen but only if you keep quiet. _Understand_?” Dean’s voice was stern, he needed to make sure Reid would listed. Spencer nodded his head in agreement. 

“SSA Emily Prentiss speaking.” The phone was answered after just one ring. The three of them could tell the woman knew who was calling from the tone of her voice.

“Let’s keep this short, shall we? You let Castiel go, we let the kid go, everyone’s happy.” Dean went straight to the point. Sam was always kind of amazed how well he could play the role that was attributed to him by the people on the other side of the phone. That’s why they agreed from the start it should be Dean who handles all the talking.

“We need to know if Reid’s unharmed.” Emily was demanding. Despite her deep worry she wouldn’t emotions get the best of her.

Dean looked over the phone to where Reid was seated. He could tell the agent wanted to let his team know he’s safe but he kept quiet like he was told to do.

“He’s fine. And he’ll keep being that way if you let our friend go.”

There was a moment of silence that kept everyone at the edge of their seat.

“We need more time” the woman said in a slightly shaky voice, she was probably scared what reaction this would bring upon their kidnapped teammate.

“What do you mean by ‘’more time’’?” – Dean was irritated and made sure to sound like so.

“A day, maybe two, it’s not up to us to let Castiel go and the higher ups don’t agree to do so.”

Dean didn’t answer straight away, he looked over to Sam who nodded his head in a ‘’guess so’’ motion. Then he looked at Spencer who had a scared looked on his face while his eyes were pleading for Dean to agree. He sighted heavily.

“Fine.” The older brother rubbed his eyes, the situation was getting more complicated than he thought it would be.

“Thank you.” the relief was audible.

“Don’t thank me yet, you have two days. If you make it work till tomorrow, great, you have our number. If you don’t and 48 hours pass and I call you and you still won’t have it done you can say goodbye to your friend. Understand?”

“Yeah, we’ll try our best but it’s not in our power to decide, you don’t have to hurt Spencer over that. _Please.”_ The last word shocked Reid, as long as he knew Emily she never pleaded for anything. This made him want to tell her he’s fine, that everything’s okay. But if he’s supposed to spend another two days in here he’d prefer not to get under Winchesters’ skin.

“I don’t care.” Dean’s voice was cold, unhesitant. Even Sam looked up in a reaction to his harsh words, his brother really knew how to make someone believe he’s a cold blooded killer. “You make this work, or you never see him again.”

“Okay. Fine.” Emily voice hardened, she probably hoped to speak to the man’s humanity but his cold hearted response most likely made her think he doesn’t have any. “We’ll make it work. Just let us speak to Spencer for a minute, we need to make sure he’s alright.”

“Fine, you can speak to him, but only if we can speak to Castiel after.”

“Okay, we can do that.” Emily said with alleviation in her voice.

“Alright then, you can speak, he’s right here.” Dean motioned his hand to let Reid know it’s okay to speak. Spencer eagerly complied.

“Hey Emily, I’m okay, I’m not hurt, I’m fine.” Reid talked in a hurry of words. He was happy to be given the opportunity.

“Reid. It’s good to hear you. We’re all worried,” Emily’s voice was so much softer it was unrecognizable from a few seconds ago. “Did they do something to you? We’ll get you out, I promise.”

“No, really, I’m fine, they even…” Spencer was stopped by Dean covering the phone, when he looked up to see the man’s face it was frowned and he shook his head. Reid understood what this was about. Dean must have noticed it on his face as he took his hand off the phone and showed with his hand it’s okay to speak again.

“Uh, yeah, I’m okay, really. Is the team with you? Let them know I’m fine.”

“Um… they’re here. We’re glad you’re okay.” Emily must have sensed something was off but she didn’t ask and Reid was glad she didn’t.

“Okay, I think that’s enough, now we want to speak to Castiel.” Dean interjected.

“Fine, as we agreed.” Just like that Emily was back to her official tone. “We’ll hand you over in a minute, just need to get to the holding cells.”

Dean took the phone and turned the mic off, then looked to Reid. “Sorry ‘bout that, can’t have them knowing we wouldn’t hurt you.” Dean smiled slightly.

Reid wondered, ‘We wouldn’t hurt you’. Did it mean they wouldn’t hurt him at all? Not even if Castiel wasn’t released? That couldn’t be true, could it? They didn’t do anything bad to him until this moment, on the opposite, this whole situation looks a lot better than what he would have imagined being kidnapped by the Winchester brothers looks like. He didn’t have time to think about it any longer when Castiel spoke up through the phone.

“Dean?” The man’s name was the first thing out of the angel’s mouth. 

“Yeah Cas, it’s us, you hanging in there buddy?”

“Yes, I’m rather fine.”

“Okay, listen, we don’t have much time, you haven’t told them anything, right?”

“No, I wouldn’t give up our location, but Dean…”, ’but’ was never good, Dean thought, nonetheless he waited patiently for Castiel to finish. “They know where Claire is, I’ve told them some things… they threatened to find her and throw her in jail. I can’t let that happen. I couldn’t…”

“Wait, wait, hold up. First off, they must have been bluffing, okay? I’ve talked with Claire, she’s on a hunt off the grid, Jody takes care of that, remember?”

“Yeah, and if they knew, they would use that and push you into giving up where we are, they would bring her in for questioning, it’s procedure,” Sam spoke up.

Reid just looked at them and realized how they managed to avoid being caught all these years, they’re just good, _really_ _good_ , at what they do.

“I..I didn’t realize, I’m sorry…”

“Man, they messed with your head,” Dean said, leaning back in his chair. “But it’s fine, we’ll work on you handling stuff like that when you get back. Something important you told them we should know about?”

“I’ve just been telling them that you’re not ‘’crazy’’ and ‘’delusional’’ and how you save people’s lives by fighting demons. Oh and I’ve told them stories about how you stopped the apocalypse and a few other world-ending events. Is that alright?”

“Yeah Cas, it’s fine” Dean laughed at the thought of the agents’ faces when Cas was telling them those. “If that’s all you can keep talking, they won’t believe you anyway, but at least you’ll have some company, I guess.”

“Okay.” Cas was relieved, he never wanted to compromise the brothers’ safety.

“Yeah, we can’t get you out just yet, but up to two days it should all work out. You’ll be okay in there?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine.” Cas answered straight away.

It was time to end the call so everyone said their goodbyes and the connection ended.

Sam tapped his fingers on the table and sighted, he and Dean made eye contact.

“I guess you’ll be staying with us a bit longer.” Dean looked at Reid who didn’t look particularly pleased, but he didn’t seem so scared anymore which made Dean feel happy for some reason. 

“Is it true?” Reid asked gazing at them.

“What?” Dean asked frowning.

“That you won’t hurt me. You didn’t want my team to know, but you said you wouldn’t hurt me.” Reid was speaking his thoughts out loud even though he wasn’t sure he should, but he needed to know as the situation was just getting more confusing.

“Yeah kid, I mean, we can’t have _them_ knowing that, obviously, but yeah, we wouldn’t hurt you” Dean confirmed.

“Hey,” Sam got Reid to look at him, “we’re not who you think we are, alright? I know it seems that way,” Sam sighted and looked briefly at Dean. “from your perspective.”

“And what perspective is that?” Reid’s tone was sceptical, but he wanted to listen to what Sam has to say. If anything they could use that knowledge to catch the Winchesters later on.

“We know you don’t believe this stuff, but demons _are_ real. Monsters too. We kill them when they start attacking people…”

Dean rolled his eyes and sighted audibly.

“What?” Sam demanded irritated by Dean’s behaviour.

“You think he’s gonna believe you? He’s probably watched all the recordings and read all the files that were made on us. He’s heard all that before, and somehow we’re still criminals in his and his buddies’ minds. You won’t change that.” Dean stood up and walked out of the kitchen. He had enough of explaining his job to people who have no idea what really goes on in the world.

“Don’t mind him. You’re still interested in what I have to say?”

Reid nodded his head eagerly, he wanted to understand, not even to catch them later on, he just wanted to _know._

“Okay, so…demons… Cas was actually on a case when you caught him.”

Spencer grimaced which caught Sam’s eye.

“No, just wait,” Sam got defensive. “It’s not like that, like you think. The murders started before you saw Cas come into town, right?”

“We didn’t really…but I guess.”

“Okay, they did, believe me, that’s what brought him there in the first place. All those massacred bodies? Demons feast on pain. They’ve been possessing people, couples like you might have noticed.” Reid nodded. “Yeah, apparently their new “fun” activity was to possess couples and make them torture each other to death. All while letting them see as they hurt their loved one.

Reid squinted his eyes. “Letting them see?”

“Yeah, demons can do that, they possess your body and use it as they wish, they can choose to let you see what they do with it or not.” Sam sighted. “They usually do. They enjoy people screaming to get out inside them. Letting them see their loved ones getting hurt by their hand when they can do nothing about it. Like in this case.”

“Okay. I get it. I think.”

“Okay, so Castiel noticed an article about it, we were on a hunt at the moment so we told him to wait until we get back but he said he can’t let more people die. So he went on his own. The rest you know.”

“Yeah I guess.” Reid had to think about it for a minute. Sam’s version was weirdly reasonable, more so than he would ever admit.

“You have any questions?”

“Many.” Reid chuckled.

“I think we have something that can help you with that. C’mon.”

Reid was interested so he followed Sam. They walked out of the kitchen down the hall and into a room that got Reid taken aback. Huge hall with tons of bookshelves and probably thousands of books. Old equipment stood in the further part with wooden tables in the middle.

“So, I think that’s more than even you can read in two days.” Sam laughed.

“Yeah…” Spencer was amazed, this place only got more mysterious by the second. Sam chuckled looking at him gazing all around. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, whatever you want.”

“What is this place?” Reid looked at Sam with curiosity, he needed to know all about it.

“Oh, that’s a whole story all on its own.” Sam motioned towards the chairs for them to sit which they did. “It’s our bunker. We… me and Dean…we’re kind of a legacy, however that sounds.”

Reid didn’t say anything just listened carefully so Sam continued.

“We apparently come from a long line of what’s called the man of letters. We just found out a few years ago. It’s a secret society of people who, like me and Dean, have been hunting monsters for centuries, gathering lore and knowledge. Monsters, demons, gods, angels, they’re all described…”

“Angels?” Reid interrupted, that particular word caught his attention.

“Yeah, they’re real too, Castiel is actually one even though he doesn’t have his powers now. Otherwise this whole thing wouldn’t happen. But angels, they’re not all good like you may think…but that’s another story.”

“Castiel…angels… when you say they’re not that good, you mean? They hurt people?”

“Mostly they don’t really care about humans, but yeah, I guess sometimes they can get particularly mean and hurt people just because.”

“So they can just come down and decide to, I don’t know, punish sinners?”

“Not exactly, they need a vessel, a human who is willing to give up their body, and they don’t really punish sinners, they’re more of a “destroy all of humanity” kind.”

“Yeah, okay… but if an angel wanted to, they could come down and decide they’re going to punish who they think is a sinner, right?”

“Yeah, they could, I guess…” Sam didn’t understand where Reid was going with this.

“So, like, for example, angel Raphael could do that, just come to earth and kill people?”

“Yeah, archangels require a stronger vessel, but yeah. But Raphael wasn’t really the kind to do such things. He led the angels who wanted to destroy humanity, but when it came to that he wanted as little as possible to do with us.”

“You sound like you met him.”

“I did, yeah, surely wasn't my favourite.” Sam chuckled. 

Reid got quiet, Sam could see he was thinking about something, he didn’t want to push it but he saw something was visibly bothering Reid. Maybe he could help…

“Can I ask, why are you asking particularly about Raphael?”

Reid looked Sam in the eyes just for a moment before averting his gaze.

“I… eh…” Reid sighted. “I was kidnapped a few years back. By a man who was killing people who were sinners in his eyes. When he kidnapped me… he wanted me to confess my sins. Sometimes he would come in and introduce himself as Raphael. He said god send him.”

“I can assure you the last part isn’t true.” Sam chuckled for an unknown to Reid reason. “And the man who kidnapped you… most probably wasn’t Raphael. I can’t be sure but it’s really unprobeable.”

“Okay.” Reid seemed to believe Sam, maybe that’s better, knowing it was just some mentally ill man, not the archangel Raphael who decided Reid is a sinner. That was if Reid believed in all of that, which he didn’t, he couldn’t.

“Yeah…okay, so… you want to pick a book to read? The two I brought you are probably boring compared to what’s in here if you’re interested by what we’ve been talking about.”

“Yeah, I’d gladly read more about this stuff and what’s in here far extends what I have at home.” Reid smiled, looks like he was going to do his research after all.


	6. Chapter 6

“What are we going to do?” Garcia asked, she wanted to do _something._ Search for something, hack somewhere. But there was just nothing to do. They’ve done everything they could.

“We can’t do anything.” JJ shook her head.

They’ve all been sitting in the conference room for hours since early morning trying to come up with a new idea how they can get to the Winchesters, but everyone knew there was just nothing more to be done.

“No, we can’t give up,” Emily spoke up. “It’s Reid, we have to try, Strauss cannot decide but the higher ups can… so I’ll go straight to them.”

“You think they’ll change their minds?” Luke inquired.

“I don’t know, but I do know that we can’t lose Reid, so if they don’t, I’ll make them.” Emily had a new determination in her voice, something the team hasn’t heard in a while. She walked out of the room confident so they were all hopeful. No one thought they would ever fight so hard to let a criminal go, yet here they were.

“Someone’s up to go talk with our lovely guest again?” Luke asked with mockery in his voice. They were all done with Castiel’s stories, but that couldn’t stop them from learning as much as they possibly can before they let him go, _if_ they let him go. Also they haven’t talked with him since the call from Winchesters.

No one volunteered at first until Rossi sighted deeply. “I guess I’ll join.”

…

Sam was amazed by the amount of books Reid could go through in just a few hours. With every book Spencer opened his interest seemed to grow even more. Sam has been keeping him company, sitting on his laptop by the table and answering any questions Reid had from time to time.

He was going through articles that could point to a potential case when he noticed Dean come in carrying groceries.

“Didn’t know you went out” Sam spoke up.

“Yeah, I took baby for a drive. Needed to get out… I see you two are inseparable now.” Dean pointed to Reid who was sitting at the table with a pile of books by his side.

“Funny. What you bought?” Sam nodded his head at the bag his brother put on the table.

“Takeout. Don’t think I’m gonna cook every meal just because we have a guest.”

“Oh, what did you get?” Sam asked sceptically.

“Don’t worry, I got you your rabbit food.” Dean laughed, as always he made fun of Sammy for his food choices.

Sam rubbed his hands excited and it made Dean laugh even more but he handed his brother the food.

“And for you…” Dean turned to Reid “I didn’t know what you’d like so I brought you some actual food with some of that ‘’healthy’’ crap.”

“Thank you” Reid was grateful as he started to get quite hungry after reading for hours.

“So, what do you prefer?” Dean inquired curious.

“Oh, I’m not fussy.” Spencer shook his head.

“Oh come on, no one’s getting mad at you here, you can say what you like. A good burger and fries like me, or those leaves Sam likes to munch on?” Sam squinted his eyes at his brother who just ignored him waiting for Reid’s answer.

“Uh, honestly I don’t mind either, but when I have to choose I usually go for fast food.” Reid admitted hesitantly.

“Yes! I knew it!” Dean got excited like he won some kind of a contest. It made Reid laugh out loud. Sam just sighted. “See Sammy? I knew it at breakfast when he chose my pancakes.”

“Okay, okay, you can calm down now.” Sam said but his smile betrayed his amusement. “Anyway, seems like there is a case, look at that.“ He turned his laptop around for Dean to see. “There are three bodies with their hearts ripped out straight out of their chests. “

“You think werewolves?” Dean asked looking through the article, they blamed some animal like they always do.

“Yeah, most likely.”

“You want to send someone? We can’t exactly go ourselves.” Dean pointed out and everyone in the room knew what he meant.

“Yeah I’ll make some calls, see who’s available.”

“There are more of you?” Reid interjected. The brothers looked up to where he was sitting.

“Yeah, everyone who knows what really goes on in the dark either stock piles on salt and hopes for the best, or they decide to do something about it.” Dean answered.

“Guess I forgot to tell you that” Sam spoke up. “There are a lot of hunters out there doing their job, protecting humans. We know some of them and if we’re busy they can take care of it.”

“We haven’t heard about anything like your… uhm, case. No one else really got our attention like that.”

“Yeah, that’s Winchesters luck for you.” Dean chuckled ironically.

…

“You lied to me.” Castiel crossed his arms and sat with his gaze drilling a hole in agents who barely just sat on opposite side of the table.

“Well, your friends kidnapped one of us, so sorry we weren’t completely honest.” Luke didn’t give in easily. He was confident in himself and presented accordingly.

“And what do you want from me now? I have nothing more to say.”

“We hoped you could tell us more about Winchesters’ …heroism.” The last word barely came out Rossi’s mouth.

“What about it? I’ve told you plenty.”

“Yes, you’ve told us they save people, so they protect innocents, right? They wouldn’t hurt someone who doesn’t deserve it?” Luke took over again.

“Of course they wouldn’t.”

“Well, you see, Reid is innocent.”

Castiel squinted his eyes, but the agents could see regret on his face as he soon looked away. “I know, it’s unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate? They threatened to cut him to pieces.” Luke hissed out.

“They’re just trying to get me out.”

“Great method.” Rossi snorted, he was tired, they didn’t have an angle to use against the man and it all got on his nerves.

“You know it’s not gonna work anyway?” Luke continued. “Maybe they should think this through better. It’s not up to us to let you go and those who have that power decided against it.”

“Well, you better figure something out then.” The sudden change in Castiel’s tone caught the agents off guard. “What? You thought I would help you? You lied to me, you used Claire against me. I’m not talking anymore.”

Both Luke and Rossi glared at him. They didn’t expect such a response from the man who was rather easy-going up until now. They had to come up with a new strategy if they wanted to find out anything new.

Before they could do that someone knocked on the door, Emily walked in. “I need you two.”

“Both of us?” Rossi was surprised.

“Yeah, it’s important.”

When they got out the door Emily was visibly distressed, but the agents decided not to ask before they got to the bullpen where everyone else was already seated.

“What’s going on?” Luke asked as soon as he and Rossi sat down.

“The situation doesn’t look good. I’ve only been able to talk to Strauss, she said there is no point in going to the higher ups if we have nothing to present to them, she told me they didn’t look completely confident in their decision so there might still be a chance they’ll change their minds. That’s the good news.” Emily sighted, everyone sat still waiting for her to continue. “But like I said, before we go to them we need _something_ , and I think I know what it is, but it’s risky.”

They looked around and nodded their heads to each other. Whatever the plan was, it was their only option now, and they all knew it. So they turned all ears when Emily started explaining.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's pretty short, sorry if it is a bit rough, I'm not completely pleased with it but I didn't know what more to do.
> 
> Hope you enjoy anyway!
> 
> And I really appreciate the comments from you guys :)

Empty take out trays were laying around the table along with books Reid has went through or was planning to. Dean has gone to his room after they ate together and Sam was still on his laptop working, trying to track demonic activity that has been going high-wire lately.

“Hey Reid,” Sam got an idea, he had the perfect source of information right here beside him. “Have you and your team recently had a lot of weird cases? Like, I know you handle some really bad ones, but have you noticed if there were just more than usual?”

“Uh, I think I remember JJ mentioning something, that it was hard to choose what case we should take up cause there were so many, I’m not sure though, she handles all of that.”

“Okay…” Sam got back to his laptop but Reid already got interested.

“Why? Something’s up?”

“I don’t know yet, but it’s weird, demons are all over possessing people and doing what they want. I mean, they always have been, but not on a that big of a scale.”

“Do you have any idea why they are doing that?” Reid asked like they were just having a casual conversation. He obviously didn’t believe in the things Winchesters were saying, but at least he had something to do while being trapped. Also it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to ridicule the worldview of a delusional murderer…if that’s even what the Winchesters were, Reid didn’t know what to think of them anymore.

Sam looked briefly at Spencer “No,” he sighted and closed his laptop. “Sometimes I wish I could teach people how to recognize demons, how to defend themselves.”

“How do you recognize a demon? Or a monster for that matter?” Reid was curious, he wanted to know how the brothers decided who to kill. How they knew who was a monster?

“Well, there are a few ways you could do that. Actually, wait a moment.” Sam ran out of the room and soon came back with a few items. Reid intrigued closed his book and looked closer.

“Okay, so there are a few things that are essential for us, hunters. Ways to check if someone is human or not. Harmless ways.” Sam reassured as he was sure Reid would get scared but when he looked at him he didn’t appear to be.

“If you had to check me then, how would you do it?”

“Christo,” Sam said abruptly which had Reid squint at him. Sam laughed seeing his reaction. “It’s a demon thing, they usually twitch when they hear it, but it’s not a sure thing, there are better ways.”

“What ways?” Reid asked amused.

“Holy water burns demons like some kind of acid. Come on, I’ll show you.”

Reid stood up, he wasn’t quite sure if he was doing the right thing. What if it _was_ some kind of acid? – his logical mind screamed at him but he decided to ignore it.

“Okay, don’t be scared,” Sam said seeing Reid’s uncertainty. “I’ll show you on myself first.” Sam proceeded to pour some liquid on his hand, he moved it around and showed it to Reid so he could see everything’s fine.

“Okay, try me.” Reid reached his hand out. Sam took a few steps to get closer and poured water on Spencer’s hand. It had no reaction just like they expected.

“See? We’re both officially not possessed.” Sam smiled and reached out his hand for Reid to shake as some kind of congratulatory for not being a demon. Reid happily obliged and they both laughed shaking each other wet hands.

“There are also other ways, monsters for example react to silver…”

“Sammy!” Dean’s voice sounded in the room. He came running in. “They’re calling.”

“Already?” Sam was surprised.

“Yeah, seems like it,” Dean looked swiftly at Reid. “You know our deal, yeah?

“Yes.” Spencer nodded eagerly, he wanted to hear his team.

Dean answered the phone. “That was fast,” he said.

“Yeah, not exactly. We have a new proposition,” Emily spoke up on the other side of the phone.

“We already said what our terms are, we’re not interested in any propositions.”

“Well, you might just be, but first we need to hear from Reid.”

“So you’re calling when you haven’t really done anything _and_ you have demands.”

“We need to make sure before we proceed.”

Dean looked around, he didn’t like it, something was definitely off.

“Is he there?”

“Yeah, he’s here.” Dean said exasperated. “You can talk.” Dean turned to Reid.

“Hi guys, I’m here, still okay,” Reid spoke up happy, maybe a bit too happy to keep up the appearances.

“Good to hear you, everything okay in there?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Nothing bad happened to me.” Reid wished he could say more but he knew what the deal was and he intended to keep it.

“Okay, listen, I need you to hold in there a bit longer, but everything will be fine in the end, okay?” Emily sounded off, Reid didn’t know what was up but maybe it was just her worrying.

“So what’s the deal?” Dean interjected, he was nervous about what was going on.

There was a moment of silence.

“We can’t let Castiel go.” Emily spoke up eventually. “All we can do is get you a new deal.”

“Yeah, and what would that be?”

“If you let Reid go unharmed, Castiel will get minimal sentence, a good prison, not too harsh…”

“Are you kidding me?!” Dean shouted which made Reid jerk back. It reminded him of being tied down in that chair he never wanted to see again.

“No, it’s the only deal we can get you, there is nothing else to do.”

“Well, there better be or…”

“Or what? What are you gonna do?” Emily asked with mockery that was unlike her.

Dean looked at Sam with raised eyebrows. He couldn’t believe his ears.

“Listen here, you don’t play games with me or the kid’s gonna get really, really hurt.”

“You’ve said that before. But just know, you do that and the deal’s off. I’ve told you, one life isn’t worth all those you’re gonna torture and murder with your buddy, not for our bosses.”

“Yeah? Well then when we’re done with the kid, we’ll move on, we’ll get someone else, maybe another one of your team, doesn’t matter. You know perfectly well what we’re capable of, and we’ll let you watch too. If that won’t be enough we can get another one, and another one, you’ll get to watch them all die, all together with your bosses….”

“Okay, okay. Stop. We need to consult with the council. You might just get what you want… if you don’t hurt Reid in the meantime of course.”

“What?” Dean was dumbfounded, he didn’t know what the hell was going on.

“You’ve told us new stuff we need to consult, will you wait for us to do that?”

“…okay? But this is your last chance, get that? You better don’t call me until you do what we want, and only that, we’re not interested in any other ‘’deals’’, capiche?”

“Yes, we’ll get back to you.”

That was the last thing they heard before the call ended.

“What the hell was that about?” Dean couldn’t comprehend what just happened.

“I don’t know, it was weird, like they needed to get you to say a specific thing. Then just like that they were done and ended the call… Maybe that was it.”

“What? They needed me to say what?”

“That we’ll hurt more people I think? The part about their bosses was probably true, they needed something to convince them, and that’s the perfect reason.”

Dean breathed out heavily, this FBI stuff was not for him.

“And what do you think about that, kid?” Dean turned to Reid who was silent all this time. He had a weird look on his face Dean couldn’t decode.

“You guys are good. I actually thought the same. They needed a reason to comply to your demands.” Reid knew there was no harm in telling Winchesters the truth. Maybe he shouldn’t be so amused by what just happened but he knew that if his team resorted to such means there was no other way than to convince people they had to convince to let Castiel go. So he just hoped everything went according to plan. If it did, they would reunite soon and probably maybe even laugh about it. Or at least he hoped it would go that way.

“This is getting ridiculous.” Dean snorted. Sam agreed with a nod.

“Yeah, but it makes sense.” Sam spoke his mind. “One life might not be worth it, but if they believe we’d kidnap someone else, kill someone, they might just give in. Your team knows that, they’re playing your bosses.” Sam chuckled.

“Well, I mean, they believe you’re murderers and would harm me and then other people, they just needed you to confirm it on tape for the higher ups to hear.”

“Wait, they? And you don’t?” Sam asked surprised, he and Dean stared at Reid who found himself in an uncomfortable spot.

“I, uh…” Reid didn’t know what to say, he didn’t _not_ believe, but since yesterday his look on the Winchesters surely changed. Maybe not enough to think they’re innocent and shouldn’t be arrested, but anyway. “I just mean they believe you would kill _me_. And then other people… I’m not talking about your other, uh, your previous activity, just right now, what you would do when your demands won’t be met, I’m not saying what you did in the past…”

“Yeah, yeah, okay, we get it,” Dean assured when he noticed Reid starting to babble. “You just believe we won’t hurt you, I mean, that’s a start.” Dean smiled which gave Reid some reassurance.

…

After the call ended everyone sighted with relief, they exchanged smiled and nods. Everything went more or less as planned. The Winchesters were more patient than the team originally thought them to be. At least they agreed to wait.

“Okay, we got it,” Emily said. “Now I’ll take that up with the council and we’ll see.”

“If this doesn’t work…” JJ was concerned.

“Let’s not go there. I’ll let you know as soon as I know something.” With that sentence Emily walked out of the room with what was most probably their last chance to save their friend. 


	8. Chapter 8

It was a while before Emily came back, everyone waited impatiently. Reid’s life depended on that one decision, or so they thought. No one came even close to imagine how Reid actually is right now. They all had different versions of how it must be, and they were all equally awful.

No one bothered to interrogate Castiel anymore. They were all just too tired of his stories. He kind of shut down anyway after talking to the brothers. It was almost like he thought less of the team because of the bluff they pulled on him. Nonetheless, nobody wanted to talk to him anyway.

They all sat together in silence. Tension thick in the air. Time seemed unbearably stretched.

The team came alive once again when Emily entered the room. Everyone stared at her in anticipation.

"We got it." Emily breathed out. Relief in her voice was hearable. "We’re getting Reid out."

Everyone was livid, they jumped up in excitement.

Prentiss smiled but sighted after a moment. Luke looked her in the eye. "Now we just have to let a serial killer go freely," she said gravely.

They nodded to each other, it was not a thing to be happy about. The thought of getting their friend out however seemed to compensate for that. At least for now.

…

The bunker was filled with laughter of the three man residing it, the brothers along with Reid came up with a way to kill some time, and the way was teaching Reid The 101 Of Hunting Life. Which included Spencer learning how to draw a pentagram, recognizing signs of demonic activity in an area, using an EMF meter to detect ghosts, learning an exorcism - which took Reid one look at it to have it imprinted in his mind - and a lot of other stuff they had a fun time explaining.

“…Yeah, it’s all fun and games until a werewolf’s trying to rip your throat out.” Dean laughed along with Sam and Reid. They’ve been telling stories of their hunts of which they had many ridiculous ones. “But wait till you hear about vampires who got so inspired by some chick-flick they started playing it out in real life!”

“No!” Reid broke into laughter for a countless time that night. It was getting late by now but none of them cared as they had a great time with each other. Reid never could have imagined himself in such a scenario before it actually became reality and here he was.

Some more time has passed and everyone was getting tired. Despite that no one was keen on going to bed.

“So, how about you tell us some stuff you guys came up with to rationalize what we do?” Dean was curious what a bunch of profilers thought about them.

“Except the obvious stuff?” Reid chuckled and thought about all things he could say. A day before, or even a few hours ago, his mind would be yelling not to say anything, or at least nothing that could set them off. But really, the brothers wouldn’t hurt him, he knew that now.

Dean nodded his head eagerly.

“Okay, well… we never came up with an explanation for why you desecrate graves… getting rid of ghosts as you said,” Reid looked suspiciously at Dean with squinted eyes which made the man laugh and nod in agreement. “never thought of that.” Reid joined in laughter, whether he believed all that stuff or not didn’t seem to matter at the moment.

“And what about my body in Louisiana? Always wondered about that one.”

“We weren’t on the case back then, but in the files it said the body matched you perfectly, DNA and everything. It just stayed a mystery. At one point we wondered if you had a secret twin or something.”

“Hear that Sammy?” Dean erupted in laughter. His brother just shook his head but they could see he was just as amused.

“Yeah.” Reid smiled and looked into his cup of tea that was made for him. A shapeshifter, as he previously found out. Why did it make so much sense? It couldn’t be true, right? But it was so plausible…

The brothers bickering severed him from his thoughts. He looked up to meet Sam’s eyes that looked like he was waiting for an answer.

“Hello there!” Dean waving his hand before Reid’s eyes got him to focus on what was said to him, he blinked a few times to get back to reality.

Sam caught his brother’s hand and shook his head at him. Then he looked back at Spencer.

“You must be tired. It’s time to go to sleep.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess.” Reid agreed, it _was_ really late.

“What? No, c’mon, just a bit longer.”

“Dean.” Sam said sternly, he was amazed how much his older brother could act like a five year old sometimes.

“Yeah okay.” Dean understood. It was a big day tomorrow if everything went according to plan this time. “Let’s go.”

They all went to their rooms, Reid was too tired to stay up even longer to read, as soon as he crashed into his bed he fell asleep, thoughts of confusion on his mind.

…

The FBI base was buzzing since early morning, preparations for Castiel’s release were being made. It was a big deal for everyone involved. The team planned one last interrogation before they let the man go. Besides that they were estimating their chances of following Castiel quietly so he leads them to the Winchesters. It was one of the things Emily used to convince the council to change their minds, even if she knew the chances were slim from the start. The brothers surely prepared to handle any attempts of following their friend.

JJ was handling media, making sure no information about the case leaked out. That was another aspect of the deal Emily made.

When everyone gathered in the bullpen Emily started briefing. They had to go through every detail carefully if this was supposed to work out. If something went sideways they could lose their teammate. Nothing mattered more to them than getting him out safely, even if that meant setting Winchesters loose for the moment. Which of course meant what Emily said at the meeting was a lie, but she could deal with the consequences of that later.

“Okay, I’ll be leading the final interrogation, then I’ll call the Winchesters. Rossi and Luke, you’re with me, I’ll need you to safeguard the release. JJ, focus on getting media off our backs. Garcia, work with JJ on monitoring the press. Reid’s life is on the line.” Emily gave everyone their orders after which there was a moment of silence between the team, they knew the stakes at hand. One last glance between each other, a nod, and they all got to work.

Emily wanted to have one last talk with Castiel, an interrogation officially. But really she just wanted to estimate the chances of the brothers keeping their end of the deal.

She took a look at the man through the glass before walking in. Rossi and Luke stayed back behind the mirror to observe.

“Okay.” Emily sat down in the chair opposite of the man. He was looking at her intensely.

“You’re releasing me.”

The woman squinted surprised, she hasn’t said anything of the sort yet.

“I can tell by how unpleased you look.” Castiel smiled slightly, as to make a joke out of the whole thing.

“Yes we are,” Emily confirmed. “But first I need to go through a few more things with you.”

“You want to know if they will let your friend go.” Castiel stated once again before the woman could say anything.

Prentiss almost snorted, but she refrained herself from doing so. She needed to establish a bond. Even if she despised the man.

“Yes, can you assure me that they will? We don’t exactly have any guarantee to confirm that.”

Castiel took a slow breath, not averting his gaze from the woman’s eyes, then answered. “I _can_ assure you, they have no intent of hurting him. He’ll be released as soon as I’m back.”

“How can we be sure of that?”

“You can’t,” Cas said simply. “Not with what you think of them. But they’re not who you think.”

“So you said.”

“Yes. Because it’s true.”

“Hmm. We’ll see about that.” Emily stared intensely at him, trying to read something out of his face, but it was mysterious, not betraying a single thing.

“Let’s call them then.” Emily said suddenly braking the look between them and pulling out her phone. She dialled the number and the call was soon answered.

“I’m hoping you have good news for me.” Dean Winchester’s deep voice sounded through the phone.

“If by good news you mean we’re releasing your murder buddy, then yes.” Emily couldn’t resist a snarky response, it’s just what the Winchesters brought out of her.

“Good, I’m guessing you know the rules, you give Cas all his stuff back, and by stuff I mean his blade along with other things. Obviously no following, he’ll know if you put a tail on him, and you’ll regret doing so. But I don’t have to tell you that, do I?”

“No.” Emily said coldly.

“Good. When Castiel’s back with us I’ll drop off your buddy somewhere and text you the address. You get him, we’re done. We can end our relationship like it never happened.”

“You think that’s gonna be it? Sonner or later we’ll catch you and your brother, you’ll get to own up to everything you did.”

“We’ll see about that.” Dean almost laughed, his confidence made Prentiss clench her fist under the table. ”So, when is Castiel free to go?” Dean continued lightly.

“When we’re through with processing his release he’ll be done, shouldn’t take more than an hour.”

“Great, so that’s it for now, we’ll be waiting for Cas, and remember, no tails.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve said so.” Emily groaned, she was done dealing with Winchester’s bullshit, at least for now.

The call ended and all that was left now was the release…and hoping the brothers keep their word.

…

“Your friend sure doesn’t like me.” Dean said with a chuckle when the call ended.

“Well, you don’t exactly have the best reputation.” Reid replied.

“Can’t argue with that.”

“So…what are we doing now?” Spencer wasn’t sure what the Winchesters had planned when it came to letting him go, it’s not like he could just walk out of here.

“We wait for Cas to come back, we need to know if they did what we asked. He knows he can’t come straight back, but I’ll give him a call in an hour or so to make sure he knows what to do.”

“Yeah,” Sam spoke up. “Until then you’re condemned to spend time with us.” Sam joked.

“I think I’ll live.” Reid chuckled, it was still kind of unbelievable to him how much his look on the brothers changed in the past two days.

“Okay, since I cooked, _again_ , I think it’s only fair if you clean up.” Dean reminded of their house rule as if Sam didn’t know.

“Yeah, yeah. Okay.” Sam shook his head standing up but a smile on his face was visible.

“Alright, so…” Dean turned his attention to Reid once again. “You remember everything we told you about demons? In your line of work It’s pretty much guaranteed to meet one, if you haven’t already that is.”

Reid didn’t answer, just wondered…has he met demons? No, he, didn’t, because they don’t exist. He’s coming back to the real world soon, he can’t be consumed by thinking about those things. What would his teammates think of him if they found out he’s even considering it might be true? He didn’t want to know, and he’s not gonna find out since he’s never going to talk about his confused thoughts. Emily wouldn’t like that, she’d probably recommend Spencer to go to a psychologist, which Reid was just not having.

His thoughts were interrupted by a soft “Reid?” addressed to him by Dean when the man didn’t get an answer.

“What…? Yes, I remember, sure.” He nodded his head eagerly.

“Of course he remembers, he could recite you a whole book about demonic possession if he wanted.” Sam spoke up from washing the dishes.

“Am I talking to or am I talking to him? Yeah, exactly.” Dean replied snarly not waiting for an answer. His brother just laughed and lifted his hands in the air a bit.

Reid chucked a bit at the brothers’ behaviour then turned to look at Dean.

“Do you want me to recite the exorcism to you? Because I can if you…”

“No, no, I get it, you’re a genius.” Dean resigned from asking further questions.

Both Sam and Reid laughed out loud and Dean just rolled his eyes but Reid could see him smiling.


	9. Chapter 9

“Okay, that’s all the paperwork…we can go.” Emily admitted unwillingly. She stood up and pulled out the keys to undo the handcuffs. The man’s wrists had slight red circles around them. “Were they too tight?” Emily asked out of habit.

“No…I don’t know, I’m still not really used to being human, I figured that’s just how they are.” Castiel answered rubbing his wrists a bit.

“Well, no, if you’re not moving around they shouldn’t, but I guess officers here must have heard about agent Reid.” Emily ignored the part about being human.

Castiel just lowered his gaze, Emily could see the whole situation didn’t make him happy, he seemed to regret it if anything. Something completely contradictory with his profile, Emily noted mentally to adjust that in the files, even if it didn’t make sense.

“Okay, let’s go.” Emily motioned for Castiel to get up. He complied and put his hands in front of himself to be cuffed again.

“I’m not cuffing you, it would just bring attention, I’m hoping you won’t try anything…? I mean you’re getting out anyway.” Emily raised her eyebrow.

“No, I won’t” Castiel said simply.

“Good, while we’re on that, if you would be so kind to do me a favour?” Prentiss asked sarcastically, half expecting to be laughed at. The man however seemed to be listening carefully, so Emily continued, “There’s media out, we haven’t released any information but they are always scavenging. I’m hoping to let you out quietly, will you do what I say so we can achieve that?”

“Of course I can do that, I don’t have any intentions to make this harder for you.”

Emily squinted her eyes a bit at the man, what’s his deal, why was he being so helpful? If he actually does as he says then Emily will have to really work on his profile.

“Alright then, let’s go. Oh, and you’ll get your blade when we’re down, I think you can understand.” Prentiss saw the man nod and opened the door for them. Rossi and Luke were waiting outside.

“Okay, I haven’t had any news from JJ or Garcia, so we’re clear on that front, but remember there can still be journalists working undercover. Your face was all over the media for two days after we caught you, so we’ll have to be careful.”

Cas frowned at the news, but he could figure that would be the situation when he was caught killing a bunch of demons…or people, as everyone thought.

He caught one of the two agents staring at him, Luke as he remembered. As soon as it was noticed by Castiel the man turned his gaze away to look at Prentiss.

“We’ll scout ahead then to let you know, coms on.” Alvez tapped his earpiece and so did the other two agents. Then they went ahead and left Castiel and Emily alone.

The agent by Cas’s side checked her phone to see if there’s any news. Castiel figured there wasn’t as she quickly put it away. Even with her being a professional he could see she was on edge. She wasn’t looking at him and it seemed she was fighting checking her phone again or fidgeting in some other way.

“I know you’ve asked this already, but you really don’t have to worry about your friend. They’ll let him go as soon as I’m back. I’ll make sure myself, I promise.”

Emily looked Castiel down at first but then she nodded just a bit and a slightest smile crossed her face.

“It’s clear, you can go ahead.” Emily soon heard through her earpiece, she repeated to Castiel and they started walking towards the door at the end of the hall. “We’re going further and we'll let you know how it’s looking on the bottom floor.”

“Copy,” Prentiss said.

They went towards the elevator and stopped by the glass door. JJ could be seen from here nodding to signify that everything’s under control, Emily nodded back. Castiel kept quiet and they waited for the all-clear that soon came.

“There are a few people down here but it seems clear. We’ll wait here for you.”

“Copy, we’re coming down,” Emily answered. When they were in the elevator Emily told Castiel to keep his head down and that they’ll be heading for the back exit.

When the door opened everything was quiet, there were just a few people by the reception. Emily noticed Rossi standing in one corner and Luke at the end of the room. They nodded to each other and started crossing the floor.

A man who was standing by the reception glanced at them, his eyes widened and in a second a camera appeared in his hand, he run up to Castiel and started chattering.

“Mr. Novak, any word as to why you murdered all those people? Can you explain what…” he was quickly pushed aside by Emily, the reported then turned to her. “Are you releasing him? Is this connected to one of your agents missing?” Damn paparazzi, Emily thought to herself, how did they even know Reid was kidnapped?

Luke soon appeared to pull the man away, the reported unbothered was still shouting questions at them as they quickly walked away.

When they reached the exit Emily was in a hurry. “Okay, before he alerts his buddies, your car is parked at the lot across the street, we’ll watch your back…” Emily stopped as she noticed Castiel wasn’t paying attention, instead he looked back at the journalist taking pictures despite two agents trying to stop him.

“I’m not who they think I am.” There was sorrow in his eyes, Emily seriously needed to work on that profile.

To not waste any more time Prentiss dragged the man out through the door. They were now in an alley by the dumpsters, fortunately there weren’t any more paparazzi waiting.

“It doesn’t matter, did you hear what I told you?”

“Yes, I did, and it does matter to me. You think the same as them.” Castiel said with a grudge.

“What do you want me to say, that I’m sorry?! We caught you surrounded by corpses! What are you gonna do, throw a tantrum?!” Emily wasn’t dealing with this, is he seriously doing that right now?! Maybe she shouldn’t be so harsh, Reid’s life was still at the line. She looked at Castiel who was now glaring at her. What should she do? Apologize? She only said the truth! This was getting irritating.

“No…you’re right… I’m sorry.”

Prentiss breathed out, once again she was reminded she was dealing with a reasonable man, or one that was presenting as such.

“So what you said earlier, we’re still on? Reid will be fine?” Emily’s voice softened.

“Yes, of course he’ll be fine. Our only condition was that you let me go, and you did. Nothing else matters,” Castiel told Emily like it was obvious, he almost seemed offended she would think otherwise.

“Okay…thank you.” Emily was tracing Castiel’s face with her eyes, it seemed genuine. “Here, I have your blade,” she handed Cas his angel blade which he quickly put in his trench coat. “You better go, I don’t know how long Luke and Rossi can hold that paparazzi off and I’d rather not have you meet him.”

“I wouldn’t kill him,” Castiel opposed, that with an offended look on his face made Emily laugh, that’s not what she meant.

“I know, okay, just go before they catch up,” she said chuckling.

Castiel nodded a bit confused and turned away heading for the parking lot. He was free.


	10. Chapter 10

Someone would think it’s tedious to read about the same topic for a whole day, but not Reid, who’s been sitting in Winchesters’ library for hours now. On the contrary, with every new lore and myths about creatures of the night his interest only grew. Every so often he inquired Sam, who sat with him for the most part, or Dean, who sometimes passed through. The books only answered so many questions, and with those came a hundred new ones. The brothers’ stories of hunts when he asked about a particular thing also entertained him a lot. Whether or not he believed them was a different story. He decided to not contemplate it, just enjoy them, for now at least.

Dean gave Cas all the directions he needed and made sure he would check for tails. He informed Reid that Castiel would first go to a motel for a few hours and then head to the bunker, they could never be too cautious. He should reach it till the evening.

It was dinnertime when they sat all together by the wooden table in the library, Dean made some makeshift burgers, and he swore that’s the last time he’s cooking anything.

They were having a good time talking about what they’ve encountered through all the years of hunting.

“We’ve been telling you all about our hunts, maybe you tell us a story about one of your own this time?” Dean inquired, he was curious what mysteries the FBI had to solve.

“Well, there are many weird ones if that’s what you mean, but the word you use: “hunt”, reminds me of a peculiar one where some guys came up with an idea to kidnap people only to drag them into the woods and hunt them like animals,” Reid said with distaste.

“Huh, we had a similar case actually.” Dean remembered. “We thought it was something up our ally when people started to go missing only to show up in the woods all torn up. We checked it out and it turned out to be some crazy-ass family who decided hunting animals was “boring”. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize a real monster when humans can be just as nasty.” Dean took a gulp of his beer.

Reid looked at the man fascinated, he certainly wasn’t what their profile described. He seemed genuinely disgusted by the things he talked about. The brothers never through all their stories expressed enjoyment in what they did, it was all more of a job to them, something that just had to be done.

“Yeah, humans rarely are any better.” Spencer looked down to his cup of coffee. From all he learned while being here the Winchesters didn’t just decide there are monsters everywhere. They didn’t stick to cases that could be rationally explained, only those in which the irrational seemed the most possible explanation. Which only made it harder to see them as what he previously thought them to be.

A clatter of doors brought him back to reality.

“Cas!” Dean shouted out.

Both brothers got up to greet their friend. Reid also stood up but he wasn’t so keen, something in him got restless at the sight of the man. He watched the men hug each other, when they all said their welcomes Castiel turned his gaze towards Reid. Spencer shifted his weight from one leg to another and swallowed nervously.

“I’m sorry you had to be a part of this.” Castiel came up to him with sorrow in his eyes.

“Oh, um…” That’s not what Reid expected and he didn’t know how to react.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, omitting the circumstances.” Reid shook the man’s hand that he stretched out.

“Yeah, we never really talked.” Spencer didn’t get a chance to interrogate the man when he was in custody. Castiel nodded his head with a broken smile, it seemed he really regretted how the whole situation unfolded.

“Sorry you’re not getting the chance now either.” Dean walked up to them. “But I’m guessing you’d rather go back home already.”

“Yes, I’d like that.” Reid brightened up, even with how much he learned to trust the brothers and be comfortable around them, he could never be hundred percent sure they would keep their end of the deal, not until now at least.

“Great, we should go then, we still have a long night ahead of us.” They headed to the hallway. Reid took one last glance at Castiel who smiled at him as a way of saying goodbye.

“Can I ask, how will you let me go?” he turned to Sam and Dean who were walking beside him.

“Yeah… I have a plan for that.” Sam seemed apologetic. Reid got a sense he’s not gonna like it.

They walked into a huge garage that housed a lot of classic cars. Reid was impressed to say the least.

“Okay, so…we obviously can’t just let you go like that, we need to make sure you won’t bring your team on us. I hope you can understand.”

“Then what are you going to do?” Reid had a bad feeling about this.

Sam didn’t say a word, just pulled out two syringes from the back of the car.

Reid got a little nauseous looking at them, of course, he could figure out that’s how it’s gonna go. Nonetheless memories of Tobias Hankel flooded him at once. No. He needs to do this, it’s not like with Hankel, he’ll be fine.

“Are you okay kid?” Dean seemed worried. “It’s just an anaesthetic, you’ll be fine, okay?”

Reid got back to the world, he blinked a few times and looked at Dean. Then Sam. Okay. He trusts them, doesn’t he? Yes, yes he does, for the most part.

“Okay, I’m okay, yeah, I’ll be fine.” Reid reassured himself more so than the brothers.

“Can I ask, what is it?” Maybe that would calm him down, knowing the details.

“Uh, it’s just ketamine, it’s what we could get our hands on,” Sam said.

“Alright, that’ll be fine.” Reid calmed down a bit.

He seated himself at the passenger seat of the Impala like Dean told him to.

“I’ll drop you off at a motel, then on the way home I’ll call your team to get you. Sam will be staying back, if something goes wrong it’s better they don’t catch us both. Now, we’ll give you one shot for the road so that big brain of yours can’t figure out where we are. Then another shot at the motel. Everything alright with you?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” 

“Okay, Sammy.” Dean stepped back for Sam to give Reid his injection.

“Wait, wait!” Reid freaked out in the last moment when the needle touched his skin. “Can I do it?”

“Uh…” Sam looked at his brother and then back at Reid. “Sure, okay.”

Sam passed the syringe to Reid who took a deep breath before injecting it. He gave it back and rested his head on the backrest.

Soon he could feel it working, the last thing he saw was Dean, he’s pretty sure he heard him say “You’re okay kid, soon it’ll be all over”, then he passed out.

…

The road was going smoothly, Dean was singing along to his music driving baby like he always loved to do. Maybe having an unconscious FBI agent by his side wasn’t ideal, but hey, you gotta enjoy what you can get.

It was an hour away from the motel when Reid started waking up. Slowly regaining consciousness he started moving around. He noticed a blanked thrown over him and his seatbelt was on.

“Hey! There you go. We’ll be at the motel soon.”

“Oh, okay” he answered still a little woozy.

“Yeah, hope you like some good old rock’n’roll?”

“Sure, I don’t mind” Reid just noticed the music playing.

“Chouteau Springs…” Reid saw a sign on the side of the road.

“What..? Oh, yeah, you’re already trying to bust us?” Dean asked jokingly.

“What, no, I’m trying to figure out where we’re headed that’s all.” Reid didn’t quite catch the joke.

“Easy, kid, just messing with you.” Dean laughed. “We’re headed to Jefferson City, I’ll drop you off at a motel there.”

“Thanks.”

“Nothing to thank me for.” Dean looked straight ahead on the road. He seemed thoughtful. Reid glanced at him trying to figure something out. He didn’t know quite what it was, but something was bugging him about the man. Maybe it’s just all the contradictions he saw in the past three days.

…

Soon they arrived at the motel. It was dark outside but the motel’s neon sign was visible from afar. The parking lot was pretty empty and there were no cameras here, just the kind of a place the brothers always stayed at.

“So, how are we gonna go, nice and smooth or do I need to worry?” Dean turned Reid’s attention to himself when he was looking out the window nervously.

“I’ll won’t start screaming if that’s what you mean.” Reid tried to make o joke of it all.

Dean chuckled. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah I know, you don’t have to worry.” Reid nodded his head. Is he going to try something? He probably should.

“Okay, let’s go then.”

They got out of the car and headed to the reception. A bearded, kind of slob-ish looking guy sat behind it, visibly bored. Reid couldn’t resist profiling him. From the way he looked he probably didn’t stand a chance with the Winchester. Would he be at least able to alert the police? The chances were slim.

Dean looked at him fleetingly.

Before he knew keys were handed to Dean and it was all done, the man turned back to an old TV and stopped paying attention to them.

“Reid?” Dean spoke to him, Reid just realized he was still staring at the guy behind the reception, as to mentally communicate with him.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going.” He turned away and they headed to the room. There goes his chance.

“I get it.” Dean spoke suddenly when they were a good distance away.

“What?”

“You. Wanting to bust us.”

“I didn’t… I mean… maybe…”

“It’s fine, I can understand.”

They looked at each other, well, Reid could definitely use some lessons on subtlety.

Dean opened the room with the keys he was given. He motioned for Reid to get in which he did. It was a simple room with a queen bed, a table and two chairs. Nothing special.

“Okay. Let’s get you set up, sit on the bed.”

Reid took a breath, okay, there was no going back now. He sat down, Dean placed a duffel bag by his side and started going through it. He pulled out a syringe and handcuffs.

“Alright, You know how this goes. Lay down.”

Dean cuffed him to the headboard and reached for the syringe.

“You want to do it yourself this time too?”

Reid nodded. At least this way he had some control.

He injected himself with its contents and gave it back empty to the man standing over him. Spencer laid his head down on the pillow and waited for it to start working.

“This will all be over soon.” Dean reassured, he crouched down by the bed and waited.

Reid wanted to say something but he didn’t know what. Before he could think of something he started falling asleep. The last thing he saw was Dean smiling. Then his eyes closed.

…

The air at the bureau was tense, no one closed an eyelid throughout the night. They were all waiting at the edge of their seat. Whether the Winchesters will keep their word was the question of the night. They all hanged around the bullpen. The sun was starting to rise.

When the phone rang everyone jumped out of their seats.

Emily grabbed it swiftly and put it on speaker. “Agent Prentiss.” She didn’t bother with the full name.

“Jefferson city, Westwood’s Motel, Room 12. The kid’s waiting, better get there quick.” That’s all they heard and the connection ended.

…

In no time they were at the designated place. With keys given to them by the receptionist they walked in the room. Reid could be seen immediately from the entrance.

“Reid.” Luke breathed out.

He and Emily ran right up to him while others cleared the place.

“He’s unconscious” Emily said after trying to wake him up, she checked for pulse and breathed with relief. “He’s alive.” She nodded and smiled at Luke, their friend was safe.

The team cheered, they checked the place and returned to see Reid.

Luke turned to the door, there was a police escort with them. “Medic!”

…

It was a while before Reid woke up. They took him to the local hospital where he was examined by a Dr Balestra.

After all the tests were done the doctor walked up to the team waiting outside. Everyone stared at him in anticipation.

“There are no injuries, he’s not malnourished, all in all everything’s fine.”

“When will he be waking up then?” Rossi asked.

“Pretty soon, the thing that was given to him was ketamine, a rather short lasting anaesthetic,” Balestra looked over the worried faces of the team members “He’ll be just fine!” He announced cheerfully.

A nurse walked up to him and said something the team didn’t hear.

“Oh, it looks like your friend is waking up already. You can visit him, but…easy there – the doctor said when he saw the team getting up rapidly. “He might still be a little out of it, so don’t bother him too much.”

They nodded to the man with a bit of disregard as they were so impatient to see their teammate.

When they walked in Reid surely _wasn’t_ out of it, as he was already trying to get up. The nurse was frantically trying to keep him in bed but he insisted on getting out.

“Hey, Reid, easy there.” Luke walked up first.

“Luke!” Reid yelled out when he saw his friend.

“I’m just fine, I don’t need this.” He pointed to his drip after they hugged.

“Of course you don’t” Emily said sarcastically and got closer to also give him a hug.

The rest of the team did the same as they all greeted each other.

“It must have been awful! Are you sure you’re okay? – JJ asked.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. Actually it was…”

“Now, now, you call talk it out later. Our patient needs rest.” Dr Balestra appeared at the door. 

“I’m fine, I really don’t need _more_ rest.”

The doctor sighted but he let Reid have it his way. Reid was soon released and they headed home.

…

To celebrate Reid’s safe return Rossi threw a party at his place as he said he’s the only one who can cook decent food. No one even argued.

They all sat at the patio, joking around like always, laughed and just having a great time together.

When it got quiet Emily spoke up. “Reid? There is one other thing I haven’t showed you.” She pulled out a piece of paper out of her bag and handed it to Reid.

Spencer looked at it, there was a number and “Only emergencies, kid.” written on it. Reid couldn’t help but smile.

He realized that wasn’t the reaction his team anticipated when he looked up and saw them all glaring. The smile vanished when he realised what was ahead of him.

“I need to tell you something, guys.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's it, hope you enjoyed!
> 
> I'll probably be writing a next part, I haven't started yet but I have many ideas.
> 
> Also thank you all for the comments and kudos, it means a lot!


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